CLEVELAND, Ohio - The only thing Dennis Kucinich loves more than a good fight is a good story.

The former Plain Dealer copy boy and congressman said Friday that he's combined the two passions into a new book about his battle to save the city's municipal power plant, which defined his controversial two-year tenure as Cleveland mayor.

Since leaving Congress in January 2013, Kucinich told cleveland.com that he found the time to write a book about his fight with the city's business community, which pressured him to sell Municipal Electric Light & Power to stave off default. His refusal to sell the utility -- referred to often as just Muny Light -- to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, plunged the city into default, just four months after Kucinich barely survived a recall election. The default sealed his re-election defeat in 1980 to George Voinovich. But Kucinich's decision has since saved city residents millions of dollars in lower electric rates.

"It's taken me longer to write the book than the term did," he said with a chuckle. "I couldn't do it sooner because the experience was just so shattering. The story is told and done. It's been a hell of an experience."

He said the book is 600 pages and includes over 3,000 footnotes. He said he just completed a rewrite of the book, which carries the working title "The Division of Light and Power." He said he and his agent hope to have the book published in a year or so.

Kucinich, who is a paid contributor to Fox News, said his story illustrates the parallel between the beginning his career "and the real attack that was made by then CEI on public ownership of electric systems."

"The two were intertwined," he said.

Kucinich and corporate Cleveland famously fought over tax abatements and Muny Light. And Kucinich has long maintained that the banks caused the default by calling in due bank notes, rather than granting the typical extension, because Kucinich would not sell the power plant to CEI, which is a part of the company known today as FirstEnergy. A majority of CEI's directors at the time were also directors of four banks that were owed $12.5 million from the city.

Legendary Cleveland Mayor Tom L. Johnson first pushed the idea of the city owning its own utility because he believed in 1903 that CEI was overcharging customers. In 1905 the city annexed the village of South Brooklyn, absorbing a small power plant in the process.

Kucinich told The Plain Dealer in 1993 that if he had sold the utility, which was later renamed Cleveland Public Power, he would have been "applauded by all the phonies."

Though Kucinich's political career crashed after the default, he never wavered about his position not to sell the utility. He turned it into his platform to run for other offices, including Congress.

Kucinich's 1994 congressional campaign slogan featured a light bulb and the slogan, "He was right." In 1996, he used the slogan, "Light Up Congress."

Since then, Cleveland Public Power has struggled under poor management by the city, and its rates are not much better than FirstEnergy's, though that's not Kucinich's fault.

So, does Kucinich again plan to use his battle to save the utility to launch another comeback, perhaps for governor?